Bài giảng Technical writing and presentation - Chương 3: Voice techniques and body language

Technical Writing and Presentation

2016

Contents

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC BÁCH KHOA HÀ NỘI

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

I. Voice techniques

II. Body language

Voice techniques and Body language

SOICT - 2020

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Voice (vocal) techniques

Voice (vocal) techniques: Aims

• What you say is actually as important

as than how you say

• Add color, expressiveness, and power to your

speech.

• Make deepest impressions upon listeners rather

than slides and curious facts.

• For scientific presentations, only 17 per

cent of impression from words

• Create suspense, enthusiasm, and excitement

• Complete the drama of the plot

• Deliver in a boring, monotone way →

value of your presentation comes to

nothing

• make the story much more vividand easier for

listeners to follow.

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Technical Writing and Presentation

2016

Vocal delivery

Tempo and Chunking

• Tempo: speed

• Never rush.

• Tempo and Chunking

• Pitch and Intonation

• Volume

• Vary the speed — don’t talk at the same speed all

the time.

• Articulation

• Chunking: separating information into small groups

• Pause from time to time

• Sentence length and style

• Language mistakes and accent

• A few seconds of silence are sometimes just as

effective as words

• A well-placed pause makes your speech more

dramatic

• Pausing in the wrong place sounds like a

hesitation.

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Pitch and Intonation

Practice

Listening is difficult. Your audience is likely to start with considerable

goodwill towards you

(not least because they’re grateful it’s you speaking and not them),

and they listen at first in the hope of finding that you’ re chosen an interesting

subject about which they may learn something.

Pitch (high pitch = soprano, low pitch = bass)

Intonation: how the voice rises and falls in speech

If they can easily hear what you say,

they will tend to go on listening,

and if you are obviously interested in what you’re saying,

they will catch your interest and so be willing to go on listening

(which is why, later, we’ll stress the importance of your enthusiasm).

• Vary the pitch

• To prove you not only give information but

interpret it

• To show your listeners exactly what it means for

If you speak slowly, they will have time not only to hear what you say, but also

to understand and assimilate it,

you all.

make it part of their own knowledge base and, perhaps, think of a useful

question to ask.

If you speak quickly, there simply isn’t time for this process to take place; even

if they manage the first part, hearing, or even the second part, understanding,

they just don’t have time to assimilate the information and make it theirs.

As a result, they will remember very little and feel that they have gained no

long-term benefit from being present

• Introduce question into your presentation to force

you to raise the pitch a little.

• Be very careful with high pitch

• Don’t vary your pitch too often and too dramatically

Technical Writing and Presentation

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Technical Writing and Presentation

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Volume

Articulation

• The sounds will be clearer if you don’t rush

• Adjust your voice to the size of your audience, to

your words.

the room you’re presenting in.

• Everybody must hear you clearly.

• Vary the volume

• If you anticipate difficulty in pronouncing

certain key words,

beforehand.

practice them

• Quieter part vs louder part

• Usually the problem is the syllable stress.

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Sentence length and style

Language mistakes and accent

• Before presenting, check thoroughly all the

problematic words

• It’s hard to aurally comprehend complex

sentences and difficult words.

• If you pronounce the same word in a wrong way over

and over again, that would be very bad.

• Avoid reading your text — this should

keep the sentences fairly short.

• Our mother tongue being not English, we are

naturally allowed to have foreign accent.

• you should always sound natural.

• Practicing and trying to sound as close to native

speaker as possible is good,

• Do not overemphasize the impact of a minor

foreign accent.

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Technical Writing and Presentation

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Important Voice techniques

Stress

By stressing particular words (or parts of words) in a

sentence you can subtly change the its meaning.

1. Stress

2. Pacing

3. Emphasizing

Try reading out each of the following examples with

different stress.

°

We all know that this is an extremely difficult market.

(it’s more than just difficult)

We all know that this is an extremely difficult market.

(you and I agree on this)

We all know that this is an extremely difficult market.

(but they don’t)

We all know that this is an extremely difficult market.

(but we do little about it)

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Pacing

Emphasizing

• Use pauses to slow your pace down and make your sentences

easier to understand and more effective sounding.

• To get your message across persuasively

• To change the significance of what you say

dramatically

• Group words into phrases according to their meaning and make

pauses between the phrases.

• Various ways to emphasize some ideas in a

speech.

° In my opinion we should go into other markets.

In my opinion // we should go // into other markets.

° On the other hand, the figures prove that we are on the right track.

On the other hand, // the figures prove // that we are on the right

track.

• Slow down to make your most important pints.

• This gives your message time to sink in.

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Technical Writing and Presentation

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Stress words

Particular words and phrases.

Place emphasis on particular words and phrases.

Stress words which are normally unstressed or contracted.

These are mainly auxiliary verbs (be, have, can, etc.) and

negatives.

Practice: Look at the following and notice how the

effect is changed by a change of emphasis:

V This was successful.

V This was very sucCESSful.

V This was VEry successful.

Practice: Read out the following sentences, stressing the

underlined words:

Neutral Remark

V It’s our best chance of success.

V We were hoping for a better deal.

V We are doing the best we can.

Emphatic Remark

V It is our best chance of success.

V We were hoping for a better deal.

V We are doing the best we can.

V We have tried to limit the damage. V We have tried to limit the damage.

V We can’t go ahead with this.

V I see what you mean.

V We cannot go ahead with this.

V I do see what you mean.

V They promised completion by June. V They did promise completion by June.

V It isn’t cost-effective.

V Do we or don’t we believe in service? V Do we or do we not believe in service?

V It’s not cost-effective.

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Adverbs

Intensifiers

Adverbs are especially often used as intensifiers.

Use so-called intensifiers to emphasize your

Intensifier adverbs can be total, very strong, or moderate.

points.

Total

Very strong

extremely (good)

very (bad)

Moderate

V I’m afraid it just isn’t good enough — the entire

system needs updating.

absolutely (fantastic)

completely (awful)

entirely (depressing)

fairly (safe)

reasonably (expensive)

quite (cheap)

V We really need to rethink our whole recruitment

procedure.

V Paying off such a substantial loan is going to be

extremely difficult.

In more formal speech some verbs and intensifier adverbs form

fixed expressions. A typical pattern is:

V We have done much better than we expected —

even better than we did last year.

V That’s absolutely no chance at all of going into

profit in the first two years.

Subject

Intensifier

completely

firmly

Main Verb

agree

Complement

I

with everything you’ve said so far.

any suggestion that the company

be sold.

We

oppose

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Technical Writing and Presentation

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Verbs

'what... is ...’ pattern.

Focus key points so that everyone knows you want

them to listen to what you have to say next.

Compare:

V We can’t expect too much.

What we can’t do is expect too much too soon.

V I’d like to approach this question from two different angles.

Use the verbs to stress, emphasize, etc.

V I’d like to stress the following point.

V I’d like to draw your attention to the latest

figures.

V I’d like to emphasize that our market position is

excellent.

What I’d like to do is approach this question from two

different angles.

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Contents

Key points of voice technique

General advice:

I. Voice techniques

II. Body language

1. Articulate.

2. Keep your sentences short.

3. Check the spelling of difficult words.

To create rich delivery:

1. Vary the speed, volume intonation.

2. Use various Stress, Pacing and Emphasis techniques.

Sound natural. Be eloquent and vivid

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Bài giảng Technical writing and presentation - Chương 3: Voice techniques and body language - Vũ Văn Thiệu